From the Mayor's Desk: A Major Mayoral Meetup & More

A week of hard winter for many was also a watershed week for mayors worldwide, particularly in the US, where we'll start this week's rundown.

US Conference of Mayors (USCM) convenes in D.C:
Tonight, as you commute home (or close up your home office), give a thought to the 250-odd mayors in transit following the 82nd Winter Meeting of the USCM in Washington. In addition to many meetings and a jam-packed day on Capitol Hill, including a visit from President Obama, the confab featured a number of highlights. Here are a few:

An economic report: Prepared for the mayors by IHS Global, a new survey shows that of 363 US metro areas tracked, 357 expect to add jobs this year, compared with 298 last year. According to The Wall Street Journal, Scott Smith, president of the USCM and the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., described the results this way: "It looks like we’ve bottomed out, with a slow but increasingly positive economy." Find more about the report here.

An energy report: A separate survey of 288 mayors done in partnership with energy giant Philips shows that 67 percent expect to increase their cities' use of new energy technologies over the next five years. Priority projects include LED lighting, solar energy systems, and building retrofits.

Proposals from big-shot mayors: Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel came to the USCM meeting with a suggestion that rail shipments of dangerous cargo be charged for traveling through urban areas. New NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio encouraged mayors to work together to bypass a stalled partisan Congress -- a suggestion that drew applause. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings gave a speech encouraging the USCM to explore best-practices in public education -- and was promptly assigned to head the committee.

You can view more on the USCM meeting, including full videos of many sessions, here.

New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and Columbia, SC, Mayor Steve Benjamin hobnob at the 82nd Winter meeting of the USCM. (Source: US Conference of Mayors via Flickr)

But not all mayors were glad-handing in DC this week. A quick scan of the globe reveals news of mayors elsewhere...

Japanese Mayor clashes with PM over base relocation: In Nago, Japan, last Sunday, citizens elected Susumu Inamine, a left-wing mayor, who promptly shut down a plan already approved by Japan's conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to move a US military base from Futenma to Nago on the island of Okinawa. The issue of relocating the base is deeply felt and controversial, even on an international level. Filmmaker Oliver Stone and other celebs have opposed the move to Nago. The Abe government insists the relocation will go ahead despite Inamine's opposition.

Enter Rob Ford. Again. And again: Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford may be a lame duck in city government, but he's never far from the winking, blinking public eye. After starting the week with a drunken rant in a Jamaican accent at a fast-food joint (see video below), he showed up more than an hour late on Thursday to give a speech at an Economic Club of Canada luncheon. His handlers claimed he got stuck in a downtown Hilton hotel's service elevator for 45 minutes, a claim denied by the hotel's front desk. Once he took the podium, he encouraged his audience to embrace subways over light rail, which he called "fancy streetcars."

As one tweeter quipped: " 'We are on the right path' Ford tells Economic Club of Canada. Wrong elevator though."

We'll leave it at that. If you've got any comments or know about more mayoral milestones, let us know on the message board below!

Re: Mayors using the Think System again! Sounds to me like de Blasio is taking a page out of the Benjamin Barber book. Barber, whose actual book is called If Mayors Rules the World, advocates the development of a "mayors parliament," which Rich wrote about in more detail here.

Re: Reviewing the Agenda What is both interesting and perplexing is that the Mayor's Technology and Innovation Task Force is relatively new! It began in January of 2012.

These are its ambitions / parameters:

The task force and its members can provide strategic direction to cities by:

Creating a vision for the future of cities as engines of innovation and technology

Serving as a convener bringing the necessary public and private sector participants – the technology drivers, the business leaders and the mayors - together to discuss the applications of promising technologies and innovative systems to improve our cities.

Designing, launching and participating in projects and endeavors which demonstrate how innovation and technology can create economic and social value for our cities and residents.

Only two cities [San Francisco and Louisville] have released Open Government Innovation Partnership Action Plans. Both in January 2013.

As you noted in your piece Mary, Chicago's SmartData Platform is still in development. Brenna Berman, Chicago's DoIT Commissioner and CIO has said it won't be complete for 2 years.

By way of a tweet: Mayors are late bloomers in the "innovation" space.

Mayors using the Think System again! Bypassing a logjammed, ineffective, partisan-filled Congress? Where do I sign that petition?! I'd love to see the nation's mayors perform a sweet little end-run around the feds, but realistically, since so much municipal funding comes from federal earmarks, this is easier said than done. Nonetheless, hats off to de Blasio for getting the ball rolling! I hope this goes somewhere in 2014.

I have to say that I kind of hoped to see more than 67 percent of US cities surveyed saying they'll be investing in new energy technologies over the next five years. This should really just be a given across the board. It's not that 67 percent is a low number, but it's lower than it should be, IMO.

Re: Reviewing the Agenda Indeed, @piratejulie. I'd be surprised, though, if this conference didn't have this kind of committee, since tech and innovation are named as specific departments in the world's most influential cities, such as Chicago.

Re: Bizzare You make a sad but good point, @CitySolver. I only hope that China can rein in the awful pollution it's generating, which is forcing tremendous hardship and danger on its citizens. IMO, it has taken this situation for the country to rework its priorities.

Reviewing the Agenda I took a look at the agenda and was pleased to find a dedicated Technology and Innovation Task Force. In particular, the perspectives of Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code and Rebecca Williams, Policy Analyst, Municipal Transparency Program [Sunlight Foundation].

Bizzare A Bizzare video there!! Anyway looking at the uptake of green techologies it seems we are reaching a critical mass of support for change which is great. I think the global attitude (especially the US) is becoming much more comfortable with the idea of low energy techologies and renewables. Its just a shame mega economies like China are doing so much to offset the efforts the West is making, but I suppose thats to be expected given its situation and burgeoing population.

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